tlashop.com

TLA Entertainment Group
234 Market Street (Office Only)
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.733.0608

TLA Entertainment Group, based in Philadelphia, PA, is a rapidly growing, privately-held, 28-year old corporation. Since 1981, TLA has been dedicated to providing the very best in home entertainment – a one-stop home entertainment destination, from Hollywood and Independent cinema, to international, gay & lesbian, cult, adult and more. TLA Entertainment is comprised of several divisions:

TLA Entertainment has been online since 1996 with the launch of TLAVideo.com. Today, TLA provides several different website experiences for the consumer.

TLAvideo.com, launched in 1996, is a one-stop shopping destination that caters to every movie fan. One of the most comprehensive movie websites in the United States, TLAvideo.com features online reviews and sales of American independent, international, Hollywood hits, gay & lesbian and adult DVDs and On-demand movies, books and much more.

TLAondemand.com, launched in April of 2005, allows customers to watch high quality adult, GLBT and mainstream films, on their computers immediately. TLAondemand.com boasts hundreds of studios and ten of thousands of titles available to consumers.

TLA Entertainment Group operates two of the largest and most successful direct mail DVD catalogs in the United States. The TLAvideo.com and TLAraw.com catalogs serve over 4 million consumers annually. Catering to the gay audience, the TLAvideo.com catalog is synonymous with diverse, quality gay cinema and adult DVDs, books and adult sex toys. The TLAraw.com catalog serves as a direct to consumer extension of the successful, TLAraw.com website and caters to a straight adult audience.

TLA operates 4 award-winning video stores in the Philadelphia area. The stores are renowned for their eclectic and diverse selection, along with a knowledgeable and dedicated staff. In Philadelphia, where TLA operated the city's premiere repertory movie theatre from 1981-87, the name is synonymous with movies that are hip, foreign, alternative and otherwise not in the mainstream. Our retail stores serve thousands of people weekly in their quest for the perfect video - served up, of course, with a smile and a flair for the unconventional.

TLA searches the world for the finest gay/lesbian and independent film for distribution in North America and the United Kingdom. TLA's devotion to film ensures film-lovers will discover unique genre-filmmaking, including specialty labels, Danger after Dark, which is dedicated to films with a cutting edge and Guilty Pleasures, for films that defy genre conventions. The complete TLA Releasing library is at TLAreleasing.com

The Cinema Alliance is a not-for-profit corporation that presents two annual film festivals. Movie lovers rejoice each spring as Philadelphia CineFest projects cutting edge films from around the world in four state-of-the-art theaters. The two-week festival is packed with world-class films, stars and parties. Gay and Lesbian movie addicts mark their calendars long in advance of Philadelphia QFest (formerly The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) each July. The gay festival is the third largest in the United States, and attracts directors, stars and cineastes from around the globe to 12 days of celebration and film. PhillyCinema.org is a film festival resource for all movie lovers. As its founder, TLA is a proud sponsor of the Cinema Alliance.

TLA stands for Theatre of the Living Arts. In the early-1960s an experimental theatre group was founded under the direction of Andre Gregory (of My Dinner with Andre fame). The group included such future luminaries as Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Sally Kirkland and Ron Leibman who performed exclusively in the Theatre of the Living Arts on South Street in Philadelphia. By the mid- to late-60s, the funding for the Theatre was running out and the theatre was converted to a movie house showing an eclectic mix of classic and foreign films. The founding partners of TLA, headed by an eclectic, film obsessed projectionist, Raymond Murray, met and subsequently ran the theater. For the next six years the TLA would be one of the nation's leading repertory art movie theatres. In addition, for four of those six years, the partners ran a small, first run art house, the Roxy Screening Room, also located in Center City Philadelphia. The original TLA Theater still stands on historical South Street in Philadelphia.

In 1985, recognizing that video was a rapidly expanding genre, and one that was eroding the core audience for repertory movie theatres, TLA opened its first video store in a small space next door to the TLA theater. The TLA Store became wildly popular and 5 more branches were opened in Philadelphia area, including New York, which had a successful 12 year presence until March 2007.

Recognizing that the Internet was the next step for retailing, TLA launched TLAvideo.com in 1997. The founding partners of TLA envisioned a website where people could read about extraordinary films and purchase those films. TLA’s vision has led to becoming the world's leading retailer of gay and lesbian films as well as one of the most trafficked video sites on the Internet. Our family now includes TLAraw.com for the finest in adult entertainment and TLAondemand.com where movie-lovers of all stripes can get instant satisfaction at home.

In 1994, TLA’s President and CEO Raymond Murray began the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, now known as QFest. Ray's visions are never modest, and the film festival is no exception. Boasting an esteemed team of talented programmers and curators, QFest consistently features many world premieres and is a highlight of the year for many Philadelphians and the third largest gay/lesbian film festival in the country. In 2001, TLA assumed the management of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, now called The Philadelphia CineFest. Philadelphia CineFest has become an immense affair showing over 100 feature films from around the world in a two-week festival. To help promote the growth of both events, as well as involve the entire regional film community, TLA spun them off in April, 2009 and created the non-profit, membership driven Philadelphia Cinema Alliance.

In 2006, the Philadelphia Film Festival sold over 68,000 tickets, spanning 2 weeks, over 200 films and seven screens. The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival sold over 28,000 tickets, showing over 100 films at four screens in 13 days.

Currently, TLA Entertainment Group is always exploring new avenues in technology to bring film enthusiasts around the world, the best of entertainment. Make sure to visit us frequently because you’ll never know what surprises we’ll have for you!